Here, briefly stated, is the manner in which the scheme worked out. On May 1st General Kuroki triumphantly crossed the Yalu and stormed the heights above Chiu-lien-cheng. On May 2nd Admiral Togo descended once more upon Port Arthur, and blocked the harbor completely by sinking eight steamers at the entrance to the channel. On the afternoon of May 3rd, having made sure of the thoroughness of the work, he set off at full speed for the Sir James Hall Islands, reaching his destination by early morning on the 4th. Everything there was in readiness for the expedition, and within a few hours the whole of the transports, escorted by the fleet, set sail for the east coast of Liao-tung. At dawn the next day they reached the point on the peninsula which had been selected for the landing--Yentoa Bay--and in a few short hours a considerable portion of the force had been disembarked, the resistance offered by a small detachment of Cossacks, the only force possessed by the Russians in the neighborhood, being entirely negligible. On the 6th the railway line was severed, and in a few days more the Japanese were sitting securely astride of the peninsula, and Port Arthur was cut off from the world. The scheme had been carried out like the combinations of a skilful chess player, or like the successive steps of a mathematical problem. [Illustration: A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT PORT ARTHUR.] [Sidenote: Alexeieff's Command of Language] It is necessary now to follow the development of these operations more in detail. The first that falls to be described is the successful attempt, the third of the series, to block the entrance to the harbor of Port Arthur. But before giving the real version of this thrilling enterprise it may be interesting to quote the report sent to the Grand Admiral unconquerable Alexeieff, whose optimism rose superior to every disaster and the alchemy of whose dispatches could still transmute defeat into signal victory. Here is the message, so soothing to the nerves of his fellow-countrymen, in which he announced the event that enabled the Japanese to land troops at any point they desired up their enemy's coasts:-- "I respectfully report to your Highness that a fresh attack made by the enemy last night with the object of obstructing the entrance to the port was successfully repelled. "At 1 o'clock in the morning five torpedo-boats were perceived near the coast from the eastern batteries. Under the fire of our batteries and warships they retreated southward. "At 1.45 the first fireship, escorted by several torpedo-boats, came in sight. We opened fire upon it from our batteries and warships. Three-quarters of an hour afterwards our searchlights revealed a number of fireships making for the entrance to the harbor from the east and southeast. The _Otvajni_, the _Giliak_, the _Gremiashtchi_, and the batteries on the shore repulsed each Japanese ship by a well-directed fire.